Samsung is mass producing the industry's first 128GB embedded flash memory based on the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standard.

The memory will be targeted for use in next-generation flagship smartphones and will offer 2.7 times the performance of today's embedded MultiMediaCard (eMMC) flash memory.

Samsung is touting the new memory's ability to offer smoother ultra-high definition video streaming, more efficient multitasking and reduced power use.

The UFS 2.0 specification, released in 2013, offers a multi-lane, serial bus versus the single-lane, parallel bus used in today's eMMC flash.

The UFS 2.0 specification boasts up to 600MBps (megabytes per second) of throughput, but because it can use two serial lanes, it has a total of 1,200MBps, or 12Gbps, Samsung stated. That compares with the eMMC 5.0 spec, which has a 400MBps maximum performance over a single parallel bus.

UFS 2.0 exceeds even the current SATA 3.0 standard used in most 2.5-in. solid-state drives (SSDs). SATA 3.0 offers up to 6Gbps.

According to Samsung, UFS 2.0 memory offers three times the sequential read rates of eMMC and twice the random read speeds.

"With our mass production of ultra-fast UFS memory of the industry's highest capacity, we are making a significant contribution to enable a more advanced mobile experience for consumers," Jee-ho Baek, senior vice president of memory marketing at Samsung, said in a statement. "In the future, we will increase the proportion of high-capacity memory."

Samsung's new UFS 2.0 flash memory also uses Command Queue, which can delay command execution and reorder it based on data priority, thereby increasing performance of critical functions.

Samsung's UFS memory has up to 19,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) for random reads, which is 2.7 times faster than eMMC 5.0 flash memory. It also delivers a sequential read and write performance 12 times faster than that of a typical high-speed memory card, which runs at 1,500 IOPS.

The new memory can perform up to 14,000 IOPS, 28 times as fast as a conventional external memory card, "making it capable of supporting seamless Ultra HD video playback and smooth multitasking functions at the same time, enabling a much improved mobile experience," Samsung stated.

Samsung's new UFS embedded memory comes in 128GB, 64GB and 32GB versions, which are twice the capacity of its eMMC line-up.

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